sábado, 29 de abril de 2017

General Strike: The sleep awakening the produced the monster

Yesterday, April 28, the country stopped to protest against the labor and social security reforms, now under consideration in the Legislature. No surprise is the news of the newspapers of today, now pointing to the success of the stoppage organized by the workers, now treating it as a great fiasco, in line with the current status quo coup. Incredible as it may seem, perhaps the most conscientious reader should look for more unbiased information on the subject in the international press, which in general points out that the reckless government and the national congress are frightened by this mobilization, as well as its reflections on Approval of the neoliberal agenda that attempts to inflict on Brazilian workers, characterized by the subtraction of rights and minimization of the State.

According to Diap's political analyst, Antonio Augusto de Queiroz, this is the fourth attempt of the establishment to impose this reform on Brazilians. I could add here that at no other time did they find such favorable conditions, especially if we understand the apathy that Had taken care of the Brazilians, in a thesis attributed to Aristides Lobo, that the people watch everything bestialized. No longer. Brazilians seem to have realized the consequences of these reforms underway, with very clear purposes as regards the adoption of the infamous prescription of the Washington Consensus, of dire consequences for those who occupy the bottom floor of the social pyramid, who are absolutely unprotected By the state and at the mercy of the market, which only values ​​the so-called consumer citizens.

The mobilization of Brazilian workers around this general strike, which took place yesterday, brings us some important lessons. The first one concerns a kind of "deep sleep awakening that produced the monster," a happy reference of the philosopher Gabriel Cohen in addressing our "democratic anesthesia," that is, the mistaken conviction we had about the impossibility of a retrogression Institution. This time we had a coup d'état of a new type, with the dangerous component of the support of judicial activism, which interdicted "constitutional arbitration" as well as fomented the "criminalization" of the protests. Activists need to be aware of this new form of confrontation of the state apparatus. In this logic, "criminalization" brings a lower cost to the state apparatus and greater harm to the individual. In São Paulo there are dozens of political activists responding to lawsuits for having participated in those demonstrations of the June Days.

Another relevant point in this mobilization for the general strike on the 28th is the "qualification of the movement", that is, that feeling that this mobilization needs to be permanent, to achieve the necessary effects, pressing the Legislative and Executive with regard to These reforms now under way. May that our perception is correct, judging by the explicit denunciation of those parliamentarians who have been supporting this process, which means an inescapable burden in the next elections scheduled for October 2018. It is good that it be so. It is good that these popular pressures continue to haunt the legislature and an illegitimate, reckless government with widespread popular rejection.